1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a wind power or hydraulic power machine with axial feed, radial outflow and variable geometry vanes. It also concerns the application of this machine to projectiles.
A wind power or hydraulic power machine is an element capable of converting the energy of hydraulic or aerodynamic flows into mechanical rotational energy.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As a rule, these elements can be classified under two categories, depending on whether their geometry is fixed or, on the contrary, variable. Each of these categories has advantages and drawbacks.
FIG. 1 gives a schematic view of a prior art type of wind power or hydraulic power machine belonging to the so-called variable geometry category or, more precisely, of the type having deformable vanes. In this figure, arrows are used to show the incident flow (4), then the flow (5) driving the vanes (3), separated by the deflector (1) and the flow (6) going out from the wind power or hydraulic power machine. As this FIG. 1 shows, the vanes (3) are connected to the support (2) only by their end. The effect of this, given the elasticity of the material, is to permit an expansion of the vanes (3) when they are subjected to centrifugal force and to the pressure of the driving flow (5). The result of this deformation is that, from a certain rate of incident flow (4) onwards, the rotational speed of the wind power or hydraulic power machine tends to remain stable. By this fact itself, an effect of speed regulation is obtained, which can be very useful depending on the mechanism driven by the wind power or hydraulic power machine.
However, this architecture has two major drawbacks. Firstly, the vanes (3) are relatively brittle because they are fixed to their supports (2) only by their ends. The vanes thus mounted in an protruding position can be particularly vulnerable to axial stresses such as, for example, inertial stresses in the case of a system propelled with high acceleration. Secondly, this architecture shows low efficiency under light operation due to the fact that the flow (5) tends to escape from the space between two vanes (3), as shown by the escape flow (6').
FIG. 2 gives a schematic view of a prior art wind power or hydraulic power machine of the so-called fixed-vane (non-deformable vane) category. In this figure, arrows again indicate the incident flow (10), then the flow (11) separated by the deflector (7), which is the driving flow for the vanes (9) and, finally, the flow (12) leaving the wind machine. In this case, the vanes (9) are fixed throughout their length, to their support (8). The result thereof is that the element is very sturdy because of its non-deformable character and that it is more efficient than in the previous case because the escape flow no longer exists. On the other hand, with a wind power or hydraulic power machine structure of this type, it is not possible to obtain a speed regulation effect.
It is an object of the present invention is to overcome the drawbacks of both systems while preserving the advantages of each of them.